Hunted
by Rocky Oberlin
Summary: Quatre has a feeling he's being watched. But who is his stalker?


Hunted

By Rocky Oberlin

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters therein. I'm not that rich; dang it.

AN: This is the product of listening to a song on the radio too many times and having a long and tiring night at work. Opinions in the beginning are mine and any political disagreements from them can be directed to my e-mail. Be warned: I took a Bioethics class and have learned to think with certain theories and I am a part time listener of Rush Limbaugh.

Peace has a way of dulling the senses of those who were citizens during a war. They no longer depend on the instincts that saved them from bombings and attacks by the enemy who had no care of what their weapons hit. But peace was another thing for soldiers that served during that war. They dream of the battles long forgotten except by the survivors and whitewashed by the victorious as something to be proud or ashamed of depending on the writer's point of view. The instinct that saved those soldiers from an early death stays active because of those dreams and don't let the soldiers go. Sometimes the soldiers work through the memories and can progress with life as a civilian, but there are those who are haunted by the war cries and explosions. How they deal with these memories depends on their character and background.

Quatre was raised as a pacifist and businessman. He wielded much clout in the boardrooms and had the ability to make or break companies. He was also one of the rare types that worked for the best of the people and not for the pocketbook, even if the government was bleeding him for his hard earned income. Sound investments and long range thinking saved his company from bankruptcy and saved thousands of jobs even when others where shutting down due to "backing the wrong horse" in the war or not letting go of said war. The pacifist government wanted money, so they taxed the businesses and people of the Earth and colonies. Some lost everything while others had to tighten their belts. Quatre was one who tightened his belt and tried to give his employees a little more in their take-home pay. That gained the loyalty of his employees and some raised eyebrows from his sisters. Quatre would just shrug when they ask him about it and say it was a smart policy to keep the economy of the Earth Sphere Alliance up by giving more to the people who were going to buy necessary things for their family, not dump it in a pile called government.

But Quatre was also a soldier during the war. Well, it is polite to call him a soldier, but if you ask in certain crowds they would call him a terrorist, not a soldier. Whatever you call him, he was involved in the war and developed the instincts that helped him survive. To add to the mix was his Space Heart that told him what others were feeling.

This leads us to the point at hand. Quatre had his wartime instincts and a Space Heart sounding danger alarms from the time he steps out of his room to the time he tiredly crawls in. They are ringing in his ears of a- What? Threat? Danger? He wasn't sure what, but it was making him edgy and that was affecting his work performance. Yesterday he almost attacked a supervisor who had come to ask him a question about a project he had implemented. Quatre was able to stop himself from doing any damage, but he scared the poor man into asking for a few days vacation to collect himself and ponder a change of location.

"May be you need a break," said Duo.

"I don't know if I can even do that," objected Quatre. He frowned at the papers in front of him before looking back up to the vidphone monitor. Duo just sighed and blew the bangs out of his eyes. "I don't want to leave everyone in a lurch because I have a bad feeling."

"Buddy, you know as well as I do that those bad feelings of yours have saved our lives on more than one occasion. Take a few weeks of vacation, hire a private investigator or Wufei even, and look into the problem. If you feel like you are being hunted, then it may be a good idea if you leave the innocents out of this particular situation and go someplace where they won't get hurt." Duo grinned at his friend. "You could always come over to L2 and keep me company while Hilde looks for spare parts on Earth."

Quatre quirked a smile at his friend and shook his head before replying. "I don't want to put you in danger as well. And Wufei is on assignment at the moment with Sally. I'll probably go down to Earth and see if blending in with others will shake whoever is following me."

Duo's grin went devious. "You mean that you're going to hide in a crowded city and pray that you can cover your tracks for a while."

"No, I'll probably go to the desert for a while and see if I can lure this stalker out of hiding." Quatre looked at the clock on his wall and turned back to Duo. "I think I'm going to call it a night. I'll talk to you later."

Duo cheerfully grinned and signed off, leaving Quatre alone in his office. He gathered up his files that needed to be sent out the next morning and put the rest in his briefcase. He would finish those at home tomorrow, have a courier take them to his office, and he would go into hiding. Quatre dropped off the files on his secretary's out box and left her a note that he was staying home for a few weeks and that he would be in touch in a couple of days to check up on the status of his projects. Content with his decision, Quatre left the building on high alert and drove home as quickly as the laws would allow.

Back in the office a shadow detached himself from the rest and looked over the secretary's desk. "So the baka convinced him to take a vacation." The shadow left the building and followed Quatre's route home. He wanted to see what his prey would do next.

Quatre was uncomfortable in the crowd that surrounded him in London. He went to see the sights with the rest of the tourists and followed some of the regular people to the out of the way restaurants in smaller side streets. He kept an eye out for something that looked out of place, but it was always a second too quick for him to catch or he was a second too late. It unnerved Quatre at how he wasn't able to catch his stalker who had followed him from L4 a few days ago and he suspected someone with assassin training was targeting him.

The current of the crowd Quatre was hiding in was heading to the Underground and Quatre followed them and bought a ticket. He got off near the train station and made arrangements for a train to the Continent. It was time to find a new location before contacting a sister in Arabia about a visit for an undetermined amount of time.

The feeling of being watched crept up and down Quatre's spine and he dared a quick glance back. He didn't see much except he did catch a glimpse of brown hair. He snorted and thought that a good deal of the people here had brown hair. What was one more in the crowd?

A figure watched Quatre buy a ticket for the Continent and do a quick sweep for the person responsible for boring a hole in his back. The hunter smiled slightly and ducked out of sight. His prey was smart and kept his instincts up. But he was also getting predictable in some of his destinations. The hunter could have gone right to the Arabian home of the Winner family, but he liked to watch Quatre more. He enjoyed the way the businessman moved and how he was always watching out for traps even after two wars and a couple years of peace. He had not lost his touch. Too bad he hadn't practiced as much as he should have.

It was time for him to be on the move as well. The hunter bought his ticket and made sure that he was far enough from Quatre so the businessman wouldn't see him, but close enough that the hunter could keep an eye on his prey.

The train ride was nerve-wracking, but Quatre couldn't find the reason for his nervousness. He knew that he didn't have premonitions, so it wasn't because of a future train wreck, but the feeling of danger was quite obvious. Quatre had taken to looking around the room to see where the exits were and any defensible positions. He also looked to see what could possible be used as a weapon for or against him. He hated it, but it seemed that Quatre would have to go back to the wartime training to keep him alive.

When the waiter arrived at the his table in the dining car, Quatre was holding a knife hidden in his lap just in case this was the person stalking him like a wolf. The man took his order and didn't act like a threat, so he didn't know how close he came to death at that table. Quatre was ashamed of his choice to possibly kill the young man, but Quatre wasn't going to be used as a token against his friends, Relena, or the Winner Corporation. He also wasn't going to be a target for someone who should have left the war in the past and tried to get on with his life, as hard as that was for a lot of soldiers used to the military. He wasn't a sheep to be herded or slaughtered; he was a pilot who just wanted to get on with his life and dream of his regrets.

Quatre winced at the word regrets. One was an Asian pilot that disappeared after the Eve War. Quatre wanted to get in touch with him, but once his time at the hospital was up, Heero left after discharge and hadn't been heard from again. Not even Wufei or Trowa heard whispers about Heero and they were the ones who had the more mobile jobs of the other four Gundam pilots. No rumors of Heero reached their ears and Duo would surf the net on his down time looking for the stoic pilot. Even Quatre had a few people keeping an eye out for Heero, but he was an illusive person to track. Too bad Quatre didn't have his abilities to disappear, then may be he wouldn't be stalked right now.

At the station in France, Quatre disembarked and started out on the next leg of his journey. He planned on going to Paris a different way and he didn't want anyone to see what his plans were. Once he was comfortably settled in the car and a map in the passenger's seat next to him, Quatre drove to the heart of France. Once in a while he would glance in his mirror and see the regular traffic, but nothing that seemed out of place. He only hoped that may be he had tricked his stalker and lost him at the train station. Hopefully his stalker was still wondering if he was on his way to Germany or South France.

The hunter smiled as he drove five cars back from his prey. Quatre was becoming more careful. He was starting to implement the training he had received for the war and was covering his tracks as much as could be allowed. It was genius of the business man to use paper money instead of the credit card. Those could be tracked, but money was harder to trace and with the many people the clerks waited on each day, what was one more face that used something other than those pieces of plastic. The hunter was pleased that Quatre also hid the direction he was going until the last minute. Anyone else would have assumed that the businessman was going to Germany to talk to other businessmen or see the sights of Southern France. Too bad this hunter knew more than most.

Quatre was getting sick of this. The feeling of being followed and watched was getting worse no matter what he did. Last night angered and frightened him the most when he woke to feel a presence at the foot of his bed. The figure left quickly when it saw Quatre stirring, but he did see the figure had brown hair in the stray light of the moon. Quatre sighed in frustration as he considered this piece of evidence. It could be the same person he caught a glimpse of at London, but it could also be a different person all together. He wasn't infallible and had made mistakes on numerous occasions. This time he wasn't going to make the same mistake as last night. This time he was going to be armed.

That evening, Quatre prepared for bed as usual, but he had something under his pillow. It wasn't a gun, as he wished it was, but the hunting knife would work in a pinch. Now he just had to wait for his stalker to get close enough.

The hunt was coming to a close. His prey had upped the ante by getting a knife to defend himself with. Either his prey was nervous or was ready for a stand off. Last night the hunter was almost caught when his prey woke from his sleep, but the balcony window was easy to jimmy open to get in and left open to get out quickly. Tonight this hunt is going to end.

The night was chilled with the balcony door open, but Quatre didn't want to scare any of the other sleepers with a crash. It was also an open invitation to his stalker to come in and take a chance. Quatre gripped the knife under his pillow and fell into a light doze. He would need his sleep depending on the outcome of this face off.

In the dark of night Quatre felt the eyes that had been haunting him. He kept his breathing at the sleeping rate and cracked an eye open to find his stalker. The wolf had moved from the foot of the bed to the side. Quatre waited patiently for the figure to come closer. Patience, he chanted to himself. Wait until the right moment.

When the right moment came, Quatre struck. He leapt to his knees as he drew the knife from under the pillow. The figure before him whipped out a hand to stop the knife from finding a place on the stalker and the two struggled for control of the knife. Quatre was in a bad position as he was kneeling on the bed and the stalker was standing, but Quatre used his other fist to punch into the other's solar plexus. It didn't have the desired effect, but it did distract the stalker from the knife Quatre was trying to get back. The stalker stumbled back two steps with the force of the blow and Quatre got off the bed to stand before his- What to call him? Attacker? Well, he did attack first, so may be not. Stalker? That was what the person was, but to what reason? Hunter? That seemed more accurate than calling the person a stalker. It did seem like this was more of a hunt than a mere stalking.

"You haven't lost all your training just being a businessman, Quatre."

"Heero?"

"Hnn."

"What are you doing here?"

"Prowling like a wolf and you are what I hunger for."

I'll leave the rest up to your imaginations.


End file.
